Or love for Love. On your head be it.' The hoopoe said: 'Cheshm—on my eyes!'
"All other birds fainted with envy, as Suleiman lifted a digit.
Thereon was the Ring-of-most-Magic. Then he spat on the dust from his bed,
And the miracle came! for the hoopoe went swaggering out of the presence
(So he struts in his walking to-day) with a crown of pure gold on his head.
"But the Jews thus learnt avarice. Some one spread news of the bird-coronation
To the ends of the kingdom. The tribes ran out as one man armed with lime,
Bows, nets, slings—and slew the hoopoes for the sake of their crowns. There was profit
In sport then; none other has liked them so well since King Suleiman's time.
"They divided the spoil till in Israel only our messenger-bird